British PM faces mounting legal, political, diplomatic challenges

MANCHESTER: Demonstrators hold up placards they join a protest against the move to suspend parliament in the final weeks before Brexit in Manchester, north-west England yesterday. – AFP

LONDON: Prime
Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan was facing mounting legal, political and
diplomatic challenges as Ireland accused Britain of being unreasonable and
former British leader John Major sought to stop the suspension of parliament.
The ultimate outcome of Britain’s tortuous three-year Brexit crisis remains
unclear with options ranging from a frantic departure without an exit deal or a
last-minute agreement to an election or referendum that could cancel the whole
endeavor.

Johnson, the face
of the Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum, has promised to lead the
United Kingdom out of the European Union in two months with or without a
divorce deal, a threat he hopes will convince the bloc to give him the exit
deal he wants. In the eye of the Brexit maelstrom, though, Johnson was under
mounting pressure: opponents in parliament were plotting to tear up his Brexit
plans or topple his government, while his suspension of parliament was under
scrutiny in the courts.

Johnson’s bid to
get the insurance policy for the Irish border changed were bluntly dismissed by
Dublin which said London was being totally unreasonable. “Boris Johnson is
outlining a very clear and firm position but it is a totally unreasonable
position that the EU cannot facilitate and he must know that,” Irish
Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said in an interview with Ireland’s Newstalk
radio.

German Foreign
Minister Heiko Maas said Britain should make concrete proposals as soon as
possible but that the EU could not imagine reopening the Withdrawal Agreement
that Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May agreed with Brussels in November.
Britain insisted it had made proposals on the border backstop and that it was “untrue”
to suggest it had not. The government said British negotiators would hold
twice-weekly talks with EU officials next month in an attempt to rework the
Brexit agreement that Britain’s parliament has repeatedly rejected.

Brexit ensnared

With just two months
until the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU, Johnson’s decision to ask
Queen Elizabeth to suspend parliament was under challenge from three separate
court proceedings. The queen on Aug 28 approved Johnson’s order to suspend
parliament from as early as Sept 9 to Oct 14, a move that ensures parliament
would sit for around four days less than it had been expected to.

Former Prime
Minister John Major, whose 1990-1997 premiership included the 1992 disorderly
exit of the pound from the Exchange Rate Mechanism, asked to join one of the
proceedings to block Johnson’s order. A Scottish court will hear arguments on
Sept 3, a case brought by campaigner Gina Miller will be heard on Sept 5 and a
Northern Irish court will hear a separate case on Sept 6. Ultimately, the cases
could be combined to go to the Supreme Court – the final court of appeal in the
United Kingdom which hears cases of the gravest constitutional importance.

“Legal
proceedings can be fast-tracked as the judges in the case determine,” Robert
Blackburn, professor of constitutional law at King’s College London said.
“If the case of those bringing the legal proceedings wins, the Supreme
Court could quash and/or declare unlawful the Privy Council order authorizing
the forthcoming prorogation,” said Blackburn. In parliament, the battle
for Brexit was due to begin in earnest on Sept. 3 when lawmakers return from
their summer break and will try to either topple the government or force
through a law designed to prevent Britain leaving the EU without an exit deal.
– Reuters